My little man and me

Menu

Monthly Archives: October 2012

Some nights I have a little visitor that comes into my bed with Pooh Bear. I don’t mind this too much except for when he decides to lie horizontal across the bed and kicks me in the chest, stomach or back. Not an easy way to fall back asleep at 4.00am or 5.00am; especially on a work day when the alarm goes off at 5.45am any way! Maybe I should be getting out of bed when my visitor arrives and go and do some exercise instead?!?

I don’t want to encourage this behaviour and it is certainly not every night he is with me but it is becoming a bit more regular than I would like and I am wrecked by the weekend. The other night I was smothered by Pooh Bear thrown in my face and a little head landing on him on me. My munchkin has ‘scratched’ a hole in Pooh Bear’s bottom so I have stitched a Bob the Builder patch over it and he now scratches this to get himself to sleep or not even realising he is doing it in his sleep – so annoying. Maybe it is time I got out of my bed and went into his instead and had a nearly full night’s sleep.

Bob the Builder on Pooh’s bottom

I am not sure what prompted him to start coming into my bed. Is it because he is away from me two nights a week and every second week at his dad’s there are up to 6 children and it is all too much for him? I have asked if he gets into his dad’s bed and he has said no, which doesn’t surprise me as there is no way he would allow it EVER.

When he wakes up we have the best little chats in bed about nothing in particular but I find them so sweet and funny. I also get to give him lots of kisses and ask for a few in return as well. To wake up or watch your sleeping child is so calming and something you cherish forever; I will never forget this time with him even though I am losing a couple or more hours of sleep each time it happens.

I figure as long as he knows he is loved and nurtured at our house then his world can keep spinning on the axis it is and make him feel as secure as possible. Pooh Bear I am sure makes him the most secure as he is taken everywhere with him/us.

I have finally booked a little getaway for the munchkin and me. Nothing too exciting but it is a holiday and we are getting out of the state! We are off to Adelaide over New Year to stay with my aunt and uncle as well as seeing my girlfriend who I met in Primary School; mind you she left in grade 3 and we are still friends!

No big plans for our little sojourn over there. My family lives near the beach which will be great to entertain my little water obsessed man and they also have a farm about 30 minutes away and as he loves my other uncles farm I am sure he will be so excited to be there; especially since there are trains that run along the farm fence with The Ghan and Indian Pacific a high possibility!

I am just looking forward to a few days away from the everyday and actually getting out of Melbourne for a 4 night break. It will be great to see my girlfriend and my only plan is to out for dinner one night with her to celebrate our 40th’s as neither of us could make each other’s party. Our little holiday will take place during the time that munchkin doesn’t see his dad so there is no disruption to his routine and I don’t have to ask for time from him as the answer is usually a firm no or if I let you do this then you have to give me 5 days in return?!? Still haven’t worked out how that equates so easier to not ask.

The weather had better put its best show on for us as well as would hate to be stuck indoors with only limited toys to entertain a three year old. Now I just have to think of what toys are small, light and will travel well and best of all entertain for a few days without driving everyone batty.

I have something to look forward to over the next few weeks – ahh bliss……

As we get older and life takes over, especially children, do we just naturally drift apart or is it something else? In my case being a single mum…..

I have felt left out on the odd occasion throughout the year(s) and maybe I am been precious (that was my nanna’s nickname for me after all) and over sensitive but there is a little piece of me that falls off when I hear about dinners/catch ups after the fact and wonder why I wasn’t invited. Do they think that because I am single I am going to hit on their husband or that I make their table an odd number! Makes you feel so special when you hear the last excuse in particular!!! I would never hit on a friend’s husband even if they were all that was left on the planet; it is not in my conscious to do such a thing.

Maybe I am just having a whinge because I can as I know none of them subscribe to my blog! (I don’t have many followers at all really)

Does being single make it hard for married women to be friends with and or socialise with? I hope not as I am still the same person I was before I just don’t have a partner anymore and have a munchkin instead. Deep down I wonder how they would feel if I stopped inviting them to things that we do. Would they fell hurt or would they brush it off? I have many married and a few still single friends and try to mix up the events so that it is never one nor the other.

Why does life have to get so complicated or why do we have to make it more complicated than it actually is.

I have been in my current position since the beginning of this year; working only two days a week. It has been a challenge to say the least as in a way I have been given no responsibilities and I don’t exactly job share I perform a section of the job whilst the other girl does the remainder of the position. I job shared last year and we performed the entire role each on our allocated days and it worked fine. This position is not going as well as I thought it might have and I believe a considerable difference is that we are not ‘officially’ job sharing at all and my manager is a massive micro manager, which I am not used to at all.

I have been in the workforce since I was 14 and a half years old, (I am nearly 40!) so I have honed my skills accordingly but it seems not well enough for my current manager. Her list of things she doesn’t seem to like about me is as follows:

 Type to fast
 Speak to fast
 Apparently I come across ‘brash’ on the phone and to senior staff members (???)
 Work to quickly
 Work to slowly
 Don’t do things her way (I used the key pad on the computer instead of the top row of numbers!)
 Don’t ask enough questions

(this is how I feel)

I feel as though I can’t win no matter what I do and it is really starting to drain me mentally and emotionally. My co-worker says all of the above is made up and that no one has ever complained about me, do I believe her or not? I do find it hard to believe that I have been perceived as ‘brash’ considering I have never had a complaint in any of my previous work positions about my phone manner, if anything they have all said how impressed they are. Let alone working or typing too fast – how ridiculous is that statement?!?!

My conundrum is what do I do next year? I am on a 12 month contract which ends December this year. So do I ask if I would be successful if I reapplied or do I have some time off to regroup and look for another part time role? This position suits my needs for now but can I deal with her for another 12 months??? It has really affected me the constant put downs and lies from a lady who you wouldn’t have thought would do this to a staff member. Apparently she does it to all of us which is even more appalling in my mind. A decision has to be made soon on my part and it is not going to be an easy one I think…..

On a Sunday of this month we all met at Koko’s at Crown in Melbourne for my dad’s belated 70th family birthday lunch. My brother and his family were over from Perth and dad’s brother, sister in law and sister were all there to help him celebrate. With four grandsons aging from 2 – 11 I was thinking there is no way they are all going to sit still for the duration of our teppanyaki grill lunch but low and behold the boys were in ‘perfect’ grandson form and didn’t get restless at all – amazing! Luckily my youngest nephew brought along a few cars as we only managed to bring ‘Fireman Sam fire truck’ to entertain for 4 hours; not a smart move by me at all but it worked out in the end.

Our chef was extremely entertaining and full of stories and engaging with the two young boys extremely well. He couldn’t believe my brother and I were related; it has been said on numerous occasions that we look like boyfriend/girlfriend rather than blood related. He then said my middle nephew was my child as we look alike, which we have done since he was born. I think we thoroughly confused him but he seemed to get a good laugh out of his errors. It is amazing how we can all belong to the same family but still look so different from one another.

To end this post all I can say is that I was so impressed by the four kids and their behaviour as well as my brother for paying for it!!! Gotta love older brothers who earn more money than the annoying younger sister!! hehe

Last week I left my parents to look after my munchkin for the day, as a usual Tuesday. As I walked out the door I casually said over my shoulder ‘you may need to take him to the doctors due to his asthma.’ Little did I realise how bad his asthma was that day and yes they did have to take him to the doctors as his breathing was so laboured it was disturbing to watch. I rang to check on him and they were waiting to see the doctor with my mum telling me he was not well; then about 20 minutes later I received a call from her telling me he could end up in hospital if the ventolin and steroid the doctor gave him doesn’t kick in.

Here I was stuck at work fielding calls from my mum and then saying that the doctor wanted to talk to his dad. I hear you think what is wrong with that; when the munchkin was diagnosed the doctor wrote a letter for his dad, which I gave him, and he then rang him and abused him saying you have no idea what asthma is and you don’t just ‘get it!’ I said happy for her to ring but to be aware she may cop abuse/you don’t know what you’re talking about or she could get a nice as pie person on the other end. She got the nice as pie which was a relief for me. We had a letter for him that night at change over and he did none of what was noted, as far as I could decipher from his comments at drop off the next day.

All I wanted was for my little boy to be at home with me whilst he was not well but I didn’t even get the chance to see him as I was held up at work (another blog altogether) and missed him. I felt awful and just wanted to give him a kiss and a cuddle and tell him I was there and everything would be all right. The angst of a single parent and having to give the child to the other parent when they are not well does not bode well for this mum.

He is all better now but it tugs at my heart strings like a bowling ball when something like this happens and you are not there with them. There are worst aliments out there that he could have and asthma is not hard to monitor but it is still very scary as they can die from exhaustion whilst trying to breathe. My family knows this first hand as my dad’s brother passed away from an asthma attack many years ago.